Part 16 (1/2)

”What do you like?” the woman said.

Macy looked around and she sniffed the air.

”Catfish, maybe,” she said.

The woman shrugged pleasantly. ”For two? Sweet-potato fries? b.u.t.ter beans?”

”I have died and gone to heaven,” Macy said, and she almost clapped her hands.

”I don't think I can eat all that,” Ray said.

”I love it. I'll bring some home for Neil. Like they say, so good, makes you want to slap yo' mama.” Macy took a sip of beer and smiled. ”Sammy was a great cook. Actually, I'm a great cook.”

Turned on a dime, Ray thought. Two hours ago, she was going to hang herself in the garage because Neil didn't know her essence; now she's bringing him a Southern fried feast and they'll eat in bed. Laughing. Ray thought of Randeane and his heart clenched so deeply, he put his hands on the table.

”You should bring some home for him. I really can't eat that stuff anymore,” he said. ”Call him. Tell him you're coming home. Don't be afraid to tell him about your mother and about Sammy. He'll admire you for that stuff. For getting past it.”

”Okay,” Macy said, biting her lip. ”You really think so?” She took out her phone and checked her text messages.

”He's still at work,” she said, grinning like a kid. ”He's not even worrying.” She texted Neil and showed Ray: B home soon, w fab dinner. Love u so.

A big man came out of the kitchen and laid their food in front of them. He nodded toward the game on TV.

”That game's over,” he said. ”You know what Archie Griffin said, 'Ain't the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog.' These guys got no fight.”

”h.e.l.l of a player, Griffin. Two Heismans.”

The man paused, like he might sit down, and Macy moved over to make room.

”Great tailback,” the man said.

”Well, they measure these things differently now,” Ray said. ”For my money, Bronko Nagurski was the greatest running back.”

”Ah,” the man said. ”Played both sides of the ball. You don't see that anymore.”

”No you don't,” Ray said.

The man slipped the bill under Ray's plate. ”Come back soon.”

”Ray,” Macy said. ”If you want to be with Randeane, if you need, I don't know, support, I'll be there for you. Neil, too.”

Ray picked at the fries, which were the best fries he could remember eating. If he did nothing else to improve his life, he could come to Buck's every few weeks, have a beer and a plate of sweet-potato fries, and talk football with the cook.

Macy tapped the back of his hand with her fork. ”Ray. You be the quarterback and I'll be, I'll be the guy who protects the quarterback. I'll be that guy.”

”Honey,” Ray said. ”There's really no one like that in football.”

Right after Jennifer was born, they found cyst after cyst inside of Ellie, and when Jennifer was two, Ellie had a hysterectomy. Ray brought her an armful of red stargazer lilies from the florist, not from the grocery store or the hospital gift shop, because Ellie was particular about things like that, and when he walked in, she smiled, closed her compact, and set her lipstick on the bedside table. She'd brought her blue silk bathrobe from home and had brushed her hair back in a ponytail and tied it with a blue ribbon. She made room for Ray on the bed and they held hands.

”The kids are fine,” Ray said. ”Nellie's got Neil making the beds and Jennifer's running into the wall about ten times a day. Then she falls down and laughs like a lunatic.”

”Oh, good,” Ellie said, and she looked out the window and sighed.

”Hey, no sighing,” Ray said. ”Everything's all right.”

Ellie said, ”No, it's not. I wanted one more baby. I wanted to be like everyone else. I didn't want to go into menopause at thirty-three, thank you very much, and I am not looking forward to having Dr. Perlmutter's hand up my you-know-what every six months for the rest of my life.”

Ray squeezed her hand. ”For better or for worse. Isn't that what we said? So, this is a little bit of worse.”

Ellie tossed his hand aside and squinted at him, like the s.e.xy, fearless WACs he admired when he was a boy, girls who outran and outgunned the guys, even in skirts and heels.

”You think this is worse?” Ellie said. ”Oh, shame on me. Sweetie, if this is what worse looks like-we'll be just fine.”

She'd said the same thing when his blood pressure medication chased away his erections and v.i.a.g.r.a brought them back, but not the same. They were unmistakably old-man erections; they were like old men themselves: frail and distracted and unsure. He'd lain in bed with his back to her, ashamed and sorry for himself. Ellie turned on the light to look at him. She had her pink silk nightgown on and her face was s.h.i.+ny with moisturizer. She pulled up on one elbow and leaned around him. He saw the creases at her neck and between her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, the tiny pleats at her underarms, the little pillow of flesh under her sharp chin, and he thought, She must be seeing the same thing. She snapped off the light and put her hand on his shoulder.

”So what, Ray? You think this is the worst? You think, finally, we've gotten to 'for worse'?”

Maybe not for you, Ray thought.

”It's not. It's not better, but it's not the worse,” she said.

Eleanor slid her hand under the covers and wrapped her fingers around his c.o.c.k. She gave a little squeeze, like a salute. She pushed the covers back and pressed him onto his back. She talked while she stroked him. She told him about the guy who had come to do the patio and brought his four giant dogs with him; she told him about seeing one of Neil's friends from high school who'd said, when she asked how his mother was, Great, she's out on parole; she told him that she'd heard that young men shaved their b.a.l.l.s now. Ray lifted his head and asked her if she would like that. I guess I would, she said. Is it unpleasant otherwise? Ray said. Oh, I don't know, Ellie said. It's like a mouthful of wet mitten-what do you think? When he stopped laughing, early in the morning, with a faint light falling on Ellie's silver hair held back with a pink ribbon and her slim, manicured hands, he came.

Ray followed Macy home from Buck's. He could see her dark outline in the car when they drove under a streetlight, her right arm up the whole time, talking on her phone. She honked twice when she got to her driveway and pulled in. Their porch light snapped on and the moths gathered. Macy ran onto the porch and Ray could see Neil, in just his underwear, reaching out for her with both arms.

Ray turned left instead of right and parked in front of Randeane's. From the car, he saw the white edge of her chaise. He saw just the green tips of her slippered feet. He honked twice and drove home.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

My editor, Kate Medina, continues to be not only my brave and erudite captain but a dear friend and wise counselor. My agent, Phyllis Wender, continues to be the standard by which literary agents should be measured; her warm intelligence and steadfastness are legendary.

I am grateful to both the MacDowell Colony and the Yaddo Foundation, as more than a few of these stories were written in those places.

I am blessed with my beloved family of readers, Alexander, Caitlin, and Sarah, all exceptionally literate, all straight talkers, all my favorite people. I am grateful to my friends Kay Ariel and Bob Bledsoe, as well, for their generous criticism and st.u.r.dy support and for much more than that. Richard McCann has continued to be my eleventh-hour hero, with timely, stringent, and compa.s.sionate criticism. I have also been immeasurably a.s.sisted by Jennifer Ferri, who has made my business hers, in the best possible way.

A CONVERSATION WITH AMY BLOOM.

Random House Reader's Circle: In this collection of short stories, you tackle some new themes, notably love in the second half of life, and death. Why did you decide to go in this new direction? How do you see these stories fitting in with your earlier collections?